The number one reason that marketing plans fail is due to a lack of seeing the plan through to the end. In other words: not following through. You can write a plan down in the minutest detail but without action to back up what is written, nothing will happen. Other reasons why marketing plans fail are:

Not Understanding Your Audience

Running a successful business requires a lot of research and dedication to getting to know your audience inside and out. That means not only for today, but for the future too. As time moves on, some things about your audience changes too. A good example would be Dove Soap. They’ve always had the same audience, but they can’t market to that audience the same today that they did 20 years ago or they run the risk of offending their audience.

Not Understanding Your Products

Do you know every product that you offer your audience and do you know why you offer them? What benefits do they give your audience? Don’t just know how to list the features of your products. The audience only cares about the benefits and you should be able to explain your products from their perspective.

Not Setting Measureable Goals

Many businesses just run advertisements without really knowing why. If you don’t have a specific goal such as increasing your email list by 100 subscribers in one month, it will be hard to know if what you’re doing is working or not.

Not Setting Realistic Goals

If you have a budget of 100 dollars a month, you may not be able to reach 1000 new subscribers in a month, or hire someone to write 20 new articles for your blog. Therefore, work with your budget or around your budget to meet a goal. However, don’t create a goal based on budget; only create the plan based on the budget.

Not Understanding Why

You want to add people to your email list, but why do you want to do that? What is the point of your goal? If you can’t understand the reason behind your goals then it will be difficult for you to execute them.

Not Knowing How

Many people are afraid to admit that they do not know how to do something and need more education. If you can find a way to identify gaps in your education, and find tutorials or coaching to teach you, you’ll be more likely to be successful.

Not Knowing Who

If you don’t know who is going to help you reach your goals and implement your plan, then you may not succeed. When you write out the plan, also write out who is going to do each part of the plan and when.

Not Following Through

Many business owners actually do all the planning but never implement anything. It could be due to fear of success or fear of failure but just like diet, if you don’t follow through you will not see the results that you want.

Marketing plans don’t really fail if they are made and then implemented. The reason is that a marketing plan changes with the times, objectives and goals. As long as you are working the plan, you will more than likely find success.